Kaleidoscopes evolving from whimsical toy to collectible fine art

The Sun City woman has on more than one occasion asked colleagues to hold her credit card. She has walked away from suppliers, only to send friends back later to make cash purchases for her.

She even gave up one addiction - smoking - so she'd have more money for her new habit.

Griggs collects kaleidoscopes.

To control her craving, the retired schoolteacher set limits on how much she could spend at any given time. That seemed to work - for a while.

"The first time I paid more than $100," she said, "it broke a barrier. Once I discovered I could go over that limit, I really went."

Like many addicts, er, collectors, Griggs is a regular at Nellie Bly, which bills itself as the largest kaleidoscope gallery in the world. The delightfully cluttered shop, tucked up on the northern end of Main Street in Jerome, holds several thousand kaleidoscopes, ranging from $4 tchotchkes to $8,000 installations. And they have customers from around the world.

Art, not toys

Unlike the cardboard and plastic toys many of us had as kids, kaleidoscopes have evolved into sophisticated works of art, sinuous sculptures of brass and glass, bubinga and maple. The sleek exteriors hold elaborate optical systems fashioned from high-tech materials.

Most kaleidoscopes still use rotating cells holding an assortment of colorful elements to create their mesmerizing images, but some use innovative arrangements of feathers, windup ribbons, magnets, LEDs and bubbles.

Traditional tubes still predominate, but many are far more elaborate - baroquelike sculptures encrusted with Swarovski crystals, some with built-in music boxes.

The smallest functional kaleidoscope in the shop is just an inch long and a quarter-inch in diameter. At the other end of the scale, a scope called Big Botanica has an object chamber large enough, Nellie Bly co-owner Mary Wills said, that they used it as a cooler, filling it with ice and beer bottles.

Some kaleidoscopes are the embodiment of elegance; others tend toward whimsy. One is an intricately carved wooden crab. You view its images by holding it up to the light and looking in its backside.

But no matter how plain or fancy the housing, the optics make a scope.

"The most important part is the interior," Wills said. "Just like people."

Poetry for the eyes

Scottish polymath David Brewster created the first kaleidoscope in 1816. Two years later, Peter M. Roget (perhaps you've heard of his thesaurus) wrote: "In the memory of man, no invention . . . ever produced such an effect."

Hyperbole aside, the colorful, ever-changing images of crystalline blossoms and psychedelic polyhedrons have enchanted viewers for nearly two centuries.

According to Cozy Baker, the kaleidoscope enthusiast and author who founded the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society (brewster society.com) in 1986, kaleidoscopes provide poetry for the eyes and a feast for the soul.

Although many still think of kaleidoscopes as toys, Brewster considered them "philosophical instruments." Aficionados tout their psychological and spiritual benefits, often describing kaleidoscopes as meditative devices.

"There's something about looking through that little keyhole that gets your attention," Wills said. "You're immersed in that little world, that tunnel to magic."

Each rotation of the optical elements brings a new stained-glass mandala into view. And the transitory beauty of the images reflects the nature of life itself.

The way kaleidoscopic images shift constantly between chaos and order is part of what fascinates us, said mixed-media artist Sally Dryer, Wills' partner and Nellie Bly's co-owner.

"(Kaleidoscopes) tend to appeal to people who use both the left and right sides of their brains," she said. "They stimulate your own sense of creativity. It's the interactivity. You feel like you're a participant."

In Japan, kaleidoscopes are considered a tool that can unlock dreams, according to artist Michael Collier of Portland, Ore.

Collier and other aficionados are convinced that kaleidoscopes have therapeutic value. They can lower your blood pressure, elevate your mood and boost your creativity, he said.

Nellie Bly

More than 90 kaleidoscope artists from around the world are represented at Nellie Bly, which opened in 1998.

"Everybody thought we were crazy," said Wills, who shelled out $18 for her first kaleidoscope at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1969.

"I never had a kaleidoscope as a kid," she said, "so I'm not sure what possessed me to buy it. It was just cardboard (on the outside), but optically very interesting."

Despite the sluggish economy, business has been brisk at Nellie Bly, which strictly enforces its hands-on policy.

"You don't have to buy anything," Wills regularly announces to customers, "but if you're not having fun, we'll kick you out."

That seems unlikely.

There is a constant chorus of oohs and aahs and whoas and wows as shoppers fall under the spell of the magical images.

"To call (kaleidoscopes) an obsession is an understatement," said Griggs, the Sun City kaleidoscope fan. "Judith Paul (a noted kaleidoscope artist) called it a disease."

Griggs estimates she has spent more on her kaleidoscopic compulsion than she did for the first house she bought in 1972. Today, she'll only acknowledge owning "more kaleidoscopes than anybody in her right mind should."